First Trip to Silicon Valley

Tonight is my last night in San Francisco and I want to sum up my first trip to the Valley with a few selected pictures.


Yeah Baby ;-) – (if you want to read the text without having an idiot in front of it, click here)


Yeah Baby ;-) #2


Stanford – The most beautiful campus I have ever seen (this picture shows the "main quad" which was designed by the same landscape architect who designed Central Park in NY)


Have a good look at the Stanford logo – it says "Die Luft der Freiheit weht" ;-)


Very weird shoes which seem to be the latest trend in the Valley (even Reid Hoffman wears em, check the end of this video)

PS: For more details visit my Twitter page, I’ve been twittering every day :-)

PPS: All of these pictures were taken in Palo Alto – the clear highlight of my trip

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Congrats to Exsila: 20’000 members in one year!

Congrats to the 20’000 members!

I am one of them (since September 2006) and a very happy one, too. My experiences:
# I’ve swapped 54 items so far.
# I’ve eliminated all my teenager CDs and invested the money in cool DVDs (mainly 24, Lost, Sopranos, O.C. California).
# I didn’t swap any books. I’m afraid of the high postal charges.
# I couldn’t swap some of my very old games and CDs due to weird barcoded that Exsila didn’t recognize.
# I’ve recommended the service to like a million people, although there are some very important features missing and the pace of implementing new features isn’t very fast. But in the end this doesn’t matter as long as the service works perfectly fine and the atmosphere in the community is awesome.
# I still cannot believe that Exsila didn’t internationalize, especially after they’ve received funding. With such a success solely in Switzerland there would be a phenomenal potential worldwide.

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YepNep is live!

Congrats Rouven and Reto!

What I’m impressed about:
#1: Lightspeed implementation of the idea within months (or even weeks?). Getting Real at it’s best!
#2: It’s so freakin’ easy. KISS at it’s best!

Guys, good luck! You will rock it!

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Why I hate e-mail

Why we hate e-mail
Once a time-saver, the inbox has become a burden. That’s why bold entrepreneurs stand to get rich fixing it, writes Business 2.0 columnist Om Malik.

This is SO TRUE!!! Great article, Om!

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Don’t forget: BlogCamp 2.0 this Saturday!

Don’t forget to participate! We’re approaching 150 participants. There is room for 200 bloggers. Sign up on the wiki!

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“Dutti der Riese”: Must-see Movie for Swiss Entrepreneurs

Thanks to a tip on the Superblog I found out about the movie "Dutti der Riese", which I decided to watch on my birthday last wednesday.

My learnings:

# Dutti probably was one of the greatest Entrepreneurs Switzerland has ever seen
# He did not just have ideas, dreams and visions, but also the energy to implement all ideas in a very determined fashion
# Migros was a revolutionary concept by the time they started (today it’s a boring standard supermarket)
# Migros was the first company that brought the concept of the "Supermarket" from the US to Europe (the US inspired Dutti several times)
# Migros expanded very early to Germany (Berlin) and seemed to flourish there – until the Nazis gave foreign businesses like Migros a very hard time. Who knows, maybe Migros could have been Aldi.
# Migros was a very controversial concept and polarized very strongly – either you were pro Migros or contra Migros, but nothing between.
# Dutti was not afraid of losses and bad press – he all took into account to achieve his goals
# Enemies made Migros strong. If the suppliers didn’t stop to supply Migros, they never would have started producing products themselves (one of their key success factors)
# Dutti was a serial entrepreneur: Migros, Hotelplan, Migrol, …
# Dutti had a strong and supportive wife behind him
# Migrol was a HUGE project. They built the first refinery not controlled by the OPEC countries
# Migros expanded successfully to Turkey with "Migros Türk"

Conclusion:
Awesome! Switzerland definitely need more Dutties! Go watch the movie, it’s a must-see!

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Congrats to Jaiku!

As I already pointed out, i love microblogging.

Now Jaiku has been acquired by Google. Congrats Jyri and Petteri!

What will happen with my favourite microblogging-service Twitter? How will Google leverage on the topic of microblogging?

(First seen on Techcrunch)

Links:
# Jaiku Homepage
# Jaiku on ScobleShow (Video-Interview)
# Techcrunch-Coverage

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Loic’s daily Video Twitter Startup documentary

These daily videos of Loic‘s new Video Twitter Startup are just great. Keep on going Loic!
[flash]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9W0ixsYInU[/flash]

[flash]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afW8l-Qewvg[/flash]

[flash]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3r7nu8G2yU[/flash]

[flash]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvjMyQgBKuU[/flash]

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Yepnep AG: New Venture of Exsila-Founders

My friends Rouven Küng and Reto Bütler are doing it again. After Küng & Bütler Solutions GmbH, Osuru GmbH and Exsila AG they incorporated Yepnep AG (see public register).

It seems to be the same concept YesNoMayB.com has, but since the one posting on Techcrunch last year I haven’t heard anything else from the south-african startup. Here is a visualisation (you can see the "Techcrunch-effect" VERY well ;-)

Anyways, Rouven and Reto seem to be pretty serious about Yepnep, since they start with a joint stock company. Plus the name seems to be very cool and suits perfect: Yep = thumbs up, Nep = thumbs down –> it’s so simple, I love it :-)

Good luck you two with your new venture!

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